Abbreviated perfume & fragrance reviews from one man's perspective

Vintage Opium Parfum by Yves Saint Laurent

WHAT I SMELL: Opium opens with a spicy bang. It’s peppered with a sweet honeyed striking bite of cloves and cinnamon with hints of citrus. It’s almost overwhelming in its richness and depth. It makes my head swirl with the intoxicating jasmine and dare I say a bit of carnation which is a much hated note by me, but in this case it’s entwined with the other notes and doesn’t dominate. When I hold my arm close to my nose, the peppery spice notes almost burn the insides of my nostrils. There’s a slight smoky incense like layer on top of the floral spice giving it increasing depth. Opium is exotic, powerful and in charge. After a while the cascading full and rounded notes start to even out and Opium becomes dryer with more amber. At this point, Opium is still a spice bomb, but it ‘s now just a bit sweeter, but this is not sweet by any means. Opium never calms all the way down but becomes a bit more woody…it wants to be taken notice for hours and that’s just fine with me.

BOTTOM LINE: Once again I can point the finger at Kafkasesque for leading me down the eBay path to buy this beauty. I think I have put some on now for the past 5 days in a row and I continue to fall in love with it. Now mind you, I think you can find some good deals on the EdT versions on eBay, but the vintage parfum is a bit pricier. Even though I paid a lot for this love, it was still a relatively good deal at the price I got. I have done some research and it seems that my version is from somewhere between 1995 and 1999.

Lucas, I have clearly been bitten my the vintage bug and so far I really haven’t been disappointed in my choices. Given that, I like the fact that perfumes may be older than myself. But in my case, I think the perfumes would probably be long deteriorated! You, not so much 🙂

I am not kidding. I actually heard this last night 🙂 Might be visiting my parents for a week which means that I will have absolutely nothing to do but eat, watch Toddlers and Tiaras, and look on ebay for Opium 🙂

I’ve recently tried this perfume (the bottle looked like the one on the picture you used) and it smelled… like most vintage perfumes smell for me. I give up and concentrate on modern perfumes. But I’m glad it works for you 🙂

You have no idea how happy you’ve made me, my sweet Mr. Hound. Reading this was the only good thing in a very stressful day. Your appreciation for “My Preciousssssssssssssss” 😉 and the comment about how it really is like an intoxicating, addictive opiate brought me so much joy. I think the EDP version is richer, more ambered and focuses more on the base notes, while the EDT has more of the citrus and florals (at the start, at least), but both are absolutely beautiful. My all-time favorite perfume in the WORLD — always was, always will be. I would like to die with the scent of Opium in my nose.

Truly, you don’t know how happy you’ve made me. Welcome to the (vintage) Opium Fanatics club! I have to warn you, though, vintage Opium kinda spoils you for everything else….. 😛

My dear K. I am a sucker for your recommendations as you have now noticed. So to be fair to me, please stop recommending perfumes…or at least vintage perfumes. So far you have been spot on with recommendations except for one meh….Parfum d’Hermes which is OK and it very much reminds me of the 1980s. My wallet is now empty so I beg you to have a heart. I’ll sit back and luxuriate in my Opium and let the world go by! xoxoxoxoxo Steve

Heh. I would have offered my services for free to old YSL. New L’Oreal-destroyed/owned YSL can go suck an egg! Pfffffffffffffffffft! L’Oreal has destroyed one of my favorite perfume houses. (Old Vintage Rive Gauche was quite something and I’ll soon write about my Go-To Happy perfume, also from YSL and also now destroyed to the point of being totally discontinued.)

I think I may need a therapist to deal with my anger, loss, and betrayal issues when it comes to YSL. 😉 😛

Lovely review – I have samples of “Opium throughout the ages” too 😛 Both my parents wore Opium so I don’t think I’d ever wear it – the warm cloves are a bit of a no-no for me too but glad it works so well for you ❤ You vintage fiend you!
Still waiting to read some reviews on the goodies I sent you 😉

Dear Freddie – I have just started to go through the samples. I have to say that Miriam did not work for me at all and I won’t be writing about my experience. That was a bit disappointing since you know how much I like the vintages!

Aw that sucks Houndy 😦 Least you didn’t go blind buying a bottle of that! Miriam is a dream for me – I wear it when I don’t know what to wear but want to feel really good, it’s always my safe back up if I’m in a rush. What happened with it to you? Any success with M/Mink? 😛 Can’t remember what else I sent you 😦

Juan, does the bottle look like the one in my post? Sometimes on the vintage bottles, the tops can get stuck. If you google vintage bottle top sticking you should find some helpful hints on getting stuck bottles open. Good luck!